A Note for Plus Edition Subscribers using AOL

The weekly Plus Edition newsletter was sent by e-mail last night, as usual. Today I have received about a dozen e-mail messages asking why I sent it as a ZIP file. Actually, I didn't.

The interesting thing is that every one of the dozen or so people who asked have AOL e-mail addresses. I have not yet received any such question from anyone with a non-AOL address. I also know that the copies I received at my three e-mail addresses all looked normal, there wasn't a ZIP file in the bunch. (I don't have an AOL account so I could not test that theory myself.)

I am guessing that AOL converted those messages to ZIP files. Some years ago, AOL always converted long messages to attached ZIP files but I haven't heard of that in a long time. I assumed they fixed that several years ago.

I will say that this week's Plus Edition newsletter was longer than normal. Maybe that was a factor.

Did any non-AOL members receive yesterday's Plus Edition newsletter as a ZIP file? If so, please post a message below to help solve the mystery for me and for others.

Thank you.

Comments

[Dave Bartholomew]

Not only received as ZIP file (including one HTML document, one text document), but received same message twice!

[Pat]

Also received it twice as 2 identical posts, both as text documents.

[Dick Eastman]

Thank you for the info.

I am not surprised at someone receiving two copies, that can happen for any number of reasons. For instance, a mail server crash while sending several thousand copies of that one e-mail message might restart at the beginning. I have seen duplicates before from time to time and don't get concerned about that. However, conversion to a ZIP file after it leaves the sending mail server is mighty strange...

- Dick Eastman

[Jay Rogers]

Dick,
I am not, nor have I been for some time, getting the Plus editions....having to read them on your web page as a result.
Jay

[David Grier]

I get the daily newsletter via my AOL account -- so far no problems. I get the weekly newsletter via my sympatico.ca email address, usually no problem. But this week the weekly edition didn't show up at all! Go know! Very mysterious, as this account allows for long messages/big files.

[Joy Kersteter]

I'm an aol user, but I get my plus edition at my 'myway.com' address. I didn't get it at all.

[Phyllis Porter]

Yes, I received a Zip attachment, but I logged onto your site and got the Plus Edition.

[Dick Eastman]

OK, tonight I received the proof I was looking for. An AOL subscriber received a ZIP file version of the newsletter and forwarded it to me. The AOL-generated text said, "The message and any attached files have been turned into a ZIP attachment."

Notice the words "HAVE BEEN TURNED INTO..."

AOL converted the newsletter e-mail message into a ZIP file. The newsletter was not a ZIP file when I sent it but AOL converted it to a ZIP file for some reason. That explains why this only happens to AOL subscribers.

Thanks for all the comments/help.

- Dick Eastman

[Ann Lamb]

Like Jay, I only read the Plus edition on the website. I have never received them in my email - which is AOL.

[Jennifer]

I used to have the same problem when I used AOL for e-mail. I switched to Hotmail and now receive 100% of Eastman's newsletters. The same was true of a couple of other newsletters. I received them sporadically on AOL but I always receive them on Hotmail.

Hotmail works better than AOL mail and is free.

[Dick Eastman]

One comment for AOL members: You can always use a second e-mail address. Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and others are free of charge and they all work better than AOL's mail.

You do not need to change ALL your e-mail, if you don't want to. Simply obtain a free SECOND e-mail address and use that for Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and for other things that you do not want blocked. You can continue to use AOL as your primary e-mail account for sending e-mail to and from your friends and relatives, if you wish. You do not need to go through the inconvenience of notifying all your friends of a change in e-mail address. Simply used the free account as a SECOND e-mail account.

I generally recommend that everyone should always have two e-mail accounts for a variety of reasons. Problems with spam filters is just one of those reasons. One of those accounts should not be tied to your Internet provider, it should be from a separate mail service. Having an available alternative is always a good thing.

- Dick Eastman

[Jo]

I found this newsletter in my spam box. When I switched to AOL to look at my mail I got a message to take a tour of AOL's new features so they must have made some changes this week. (I haven't taken the tour.) That may explain why not more Non-Plus AOL users haven't responded.

[Don]

I also have not been getting the Plus Edition by email for some time and have been downloading it from eogn.com every week or two. I tried to download today and got this message: "Site error: the file /home/eogncom/public_html/amember/rconfig-ioncube.inc.php requires the ionCube PHP Loader ioncube_loader_lin_4.4.so to be installed by the site administrator." I tried to change my email address to my hotmail address by going to the link in the menu, but got the same "Site error".

[Dick Eastman]

The company that supplies the ionCube PHP software has been contacted. They were the ones who installed it on this site about a year ago. I am hoping to hear from them soon. (Why do things always fail on weekends?)

- Dick Eastman

[Jane]

I receive the Plus edition at my aol address, but use the "mail" program on a Mac to receive mail from all my acounts, not the aol program. No problem receiving the newsletter and no zip files.